Mamata government behind neglect of legislators' treatment: Left

Kolkata, Dec 14 (IANS) West Bengal's Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra Friday saw the Mamata Banerjee government's hand in the state's largest government-run hospital "neglecting treatment" of two Left Front lawmakers injured during the Dec 11 clash in the assembly.

Mishra alleged that doctors at the SSKM Hospital had discharged the two lawmakers of his Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) - Gouranga Chatterjee and Debolina Hembram - without conducting the required tests on them.

The two legislators were admitted later the same day in a private nursing home, where the CT scan report showed Chatterjee has suffered a fracture of skull, Mishra said.

"He also has a hole in the heart. An ultra sonogram revealed Hembram, who had gone for admission at the SSKM with severe stomach pain - after she was repeatedly kicked by Trinamool lawmakers - has a gall stone. How can a hospital release patients with such ailments without even conducting the proper screening tests?" Mishra asked.

"It is a naked example of partycracy. While the LF legislators were not admitted, the Trinamool lawmakers who claimed they had injuries were admitted. I have definite information that the government put pressure on the doctors there not to admit the LF MLAs (legislators)."

The CPI-M politburo member, however, said he was not blaming the doctors, because they succumbed to pressure from the government to protect their jobs.

He said even a minister was involved in the cover-up.

"The government wanted the reports to be so framed so as to give the impression that nothing much had happened to the two LF MLAs. Now the scan and USG reports prove who is telling the truth and who is not. We have both the reports and the plates."

Mishra also expressed his horror at the "severity of the attack" on Chatterjee in the assembly which resulted in the fractured skull.

"Whatever has happened is shameful," he said.

SSKM superintendent Tamal Kanti Ghosh, however, said CT scan had been performed on Chatterjee at his hospital. "We have done all the tests. We have all the records. The doctors did whatever was needed to be done. Nobody put any pressure on us".

Congress leader Manas Bhuniya said if Mishra's allegations were true, then it constituted breach of an legislator's privilege.

"If due to some strange reasons the doctors at SSKM had released the patients without proper diagnosis or if they had suppressed the diagnostic findings, then a privilege notice must be given to the speaker against the hospital authorities," Bhuniya said.

Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee said if the doctors had neglected treatment due to "some reasons", then it constitutes "criminal negligence" on their part.

"Nothing can be more condemnable. This is criminal negligence. Whether there was political pressure or not I can't say because I have no proof. But this is against medical ethics. An Fir should be filed," said Chatterjee.